Aqua America Q4 Profit Rises - Quick Facts

2/27/2012 6:24 PM ET

Aqua America Inc. (WTR) reported that its fourth-quarter net income attributable to common shareholders rose to $34.01 million or $0.24 per share, from $28.86 million or $0.21 per share in the same quarter last year.

Operating revenues for the quarter rose to $172.70 million from $168.44 million in the prior year quarter.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.23 per share on revenues of $193.72 million for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

In a separate press release, Aqua America announced that its Pennsylvania subsidiary has received approval from the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to acquire three systems serving more than 7,500 people. Two of the systems are privately operated and one is owned by a municipal authority.

Aqua America's Pennsylvania wastewater subsidiary, Little Washington Wastewater Company (LWWC), has signed an agreement to provide wastewater services to The Village at Valley Forge, a mixed-use community currently under construction in the King of Prussia submarket of Philadelphia.

The development is being built on the 125-acre site of the former Valley Forge Golf Club adjacent to the nation's largest shopping mall, the King of Prussia Mall, in Upper Merion Township, Montgomery County.

Under the agreement, Realen Properties of Berwyn, (Realen) will build the collection system and pumping station, then dedicate it to LWWC which will own and operate the wastewater system.

In a separate earlier agreement, Realen contracted Aqua America's non-regulated subsidiary Aqua Resources, Inc. to build the pump station. Aqua America's operating subsidiary, Aqua Pennsylvania, Inc., which already serves public water to the remainder of the township, will provide public water to the Village community as well. LWWC will purchase the wastewater assets for $1. Aqua anticipates closing on the first phase of this acquisition in the early part of the second quarter of 2012.

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